"Turn in" and just plain annoying turning characteristics

[David R]

Originally Posted by Alton

When I bought my current Bandit the handling was bad at first, and I thought the tires had been in the OK sun too long and was prepping to order a new set for it. Then my brother pointed out that they looked low. I checked and found out that the bike came home from the dealership with 10 lbs in each tire.....

When I bought my versys it had 22 psi front and rear. I test drove it that way too.

I thought turn in is how easy the bike lays down for a corner. My 250 super moto fell into the turns. My BMW 1100 has to be pulled into the corners.

[Buster452]

I've added throttle with little affect. Doesn't stand up in a curve. Some would consider that good.

I'm surprised that drastic adjustments to preload have not yielded more drastic changes in handling. It's really interesting. I'm thinking about dropping the rear all the way for the ride home to see what that does.

The only affect noticed so far has been straight line stability.

[High Country Herb]

I'm leaning toward the tire explanation, because I recently had the opposite problem, which was accidentally solved by a new set of tires.

My Dorsoduro used to steer too sharply in corners, forcing me to counter-steer all the way through the corner. It was a really wierd feeling I had never experienced before.

I replaced the Dunlop Qualifiers with some Pirelli Scorpion Trails, and the problem vanished. The Qualifiers had a slightly sharper arch, while the Pirelli's are nearly perfectly round. Both were 180/55-17.

[ttpete]

At one time, Dunlop made triangular section race tires. They were downright scary. They'd just flop to full lean almost instantly, and you'd have to countersteer to get the bike back up out of the corner.

[Buster452]

Well, going to both ends of the the xtreme in rake/trail have little affect. I still need to push on the outside bar to get the front into the turn and once on my line I have to maintain that pressure to keep the bike from leaning more. I've had the front jacked all the way up with preload and the rear squated down with no preload. I've had the front down with little preload and the rear up with max preload.

The only affect has been on the bikes willingness to lean left to right with input on the handlebars. This equates to more stability in a straight line and less of a willingness to lean.

From my observations, rake/trail impact how quickly you can get the bike to lean only. Little do do with how the bike actually comes around the curve and starts turning itself.

I'm resetting back to the preload settings I had before and I'm going to start messing with tire pressures.

This is happening with either a front TKC or a front Shinko, so I'll start messing with the pressure in the back tire to see what happens.